Johor investment company bids RM1.7 million on three vehicle plates.

He said the successful bid was made by Aldi International Sdn Bhd, an investment company in Johor Bahru.

The company was also successful in its bids for ‘MALAYSIA 2’ for RM422,000 and ‘MALAYSIA 4’ for RM162,000, he said at a press conference when announcing the successful bids for the special ‘MALAYSIA’ number plates in conjunction with National Day 2018.

Loke said all the 10 special numbers in the series ‘MALAYSIA 1’ to ‘MALAYSIA 999’ fetched RM3.62 million.

Bernama

“The government collected in all RM13.6 million from the ‘MALAYSIA’ special registration numbers,” he said.

Loke said the ‘MALAYSIA 2020’ registration number was not opened for bidding because it had been reserved for the official car of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“The PM will bring the car bearing the ‘MALAYSIA 2020’ plate during the National Day celebrations,” he said.

The bidding for special plate numbers ‘MALAYSIA 1’ to ‘MALAYSIA 9999’ was opened to the public from Aug 1 to Aug 15, with the minimum price of RM10,000 set for premier numbers 1 to 10.

The previous record bid was made for the number plate ‘V1’, which was worth RM989,000.

The number of successful bids for the ‘MALAYSIA’ series was 3,353.

The public can make their bids online or by visiting their nearest Road Transport Department (JPJ) branches.

The ministry is hopeful of collecting more than RM22 million, which was the amount collected by JPJ for the sale of the ‘V’ series.

Loke also revealed that the government had lost about RM100 million in revenue from the bidding for special vehicle registration numbers under the previous administration.

He claimed that leakages occurred when the previous government issued the special plate numbers to NGOs and companies for sale at a tender price of RM1 million for each series.

“Let’s say RM5 million was collected for each series. There have been more than 30 series. So, there have been leakages of more than RM100 million which the government should have collected,” he said.

Loke said the ministry would open bidding for special registration numbers every two months to increase the government revenue.

He added that the sale of limited edition licence plates by JPJ had proven an effective method to increase the government coffers.

The highest amount paid was RM1.3 million for ‘Patriot 1’ but the money raised for the ‘Patriot’ special series was given to an NGO, a practice that has been discontinued.

“Everything collected now goes straight to the government coffers, not like how it was managed previously.

“Even ministers will have to bid for these numbers, as how I did too. But I didn’t get the number (Malaysia 509) that I bid for. Congratulations to the person who got it,” he added.

Loke reportedly made a bid of RM1,509 for the ‘509’ plate number, which represents the date and month of the 14th general election on May 9.

He said popular numbers like 4334, 4499, 4554 and 5533 had yet to find a successful bidder.

“There are still 6,645 plate numbers open for bidding. However, the public will not be able to choose their preferred numbers.